A non governmental organisation (NGO); the club 401 has advocated for the establishment of Community Entrepreneurial Programme (CEP) for the Niger Delta region so as to promote peace and reduce poverty in the region.

In a paper titled “developing the rural economy of the Niger Delta” presented at the conference on Niger Delta, organised by the Rivers Economic Development Forum (REDEF) in Port Harcourt, the secretary, Board of Trustees of the club, Dr Okere Iragunima stated that sustainable peace in the Niger Delta rests on a tripod facts namely; significant change in the sense of wellbeing of the common man on the street, significant change in government presence and genuine reconciliation.

Club 401 he said, believes that the frame work that will bring about lasting peace and prosperity to the Niger Delta can not afford to down play any of these three legs of the tripod, else there will be instability and continued anarchy.

“To bring about significant step-change in the sense of well-being of the common man, we propose Community Entrepreneurial Program (CEP) which will serve several purposes,” Irogunima stated.

The first purpose the CEP will serve, according to him is to fight the widespread poverty, underemployment and unemployment in the Niger Delta in a sustainable way, adding that this will register and take on the underemployed and unemployed of the community.

Also, the club’s BOT scribe noted that this will put the people to work for a start in the areas of Agribusiness (commercial farming and fishing), logistics services (oil field transport/supply services) passenger transport services, evacuation of agricultural produce to commercial centre, security services, oil field surveillance and community survey.

For the operational model, he said, it will be pan-community organisation to be owned and run by community, and that membership will be on the basis of birth and nothing else; and the individual is at will to belong on not to.

He said that each CEP will be organised into department as set out, and will maximise employment generation opportunity by exploiting the entire value chain in agribusiness, and also own it’s sales outlet in population centres.

The secretary pointed out that the entire supply chain from point of production to sales outlet, there will be no middle men, rather direct execution of all works without contractors, but doubted if CEP can maintain structures it can not build.

Club 401 BOT scribe urged the Federal Government to grant oil-lifting right to each community entrepreneurial programme to sell 50 percent of the oil produced from their area and earn the sales commission, while the principal goes to the government.

Corlins Walter